Another quickie to herald today’s opening of one of my favourite spring displays, the Tulipa tarda, aka, astonishingly, tarda tulips.

This early species tulip stays low to the ground, and tolerates a root-filled space on a slope in my dry, sandy garden – albeit in one of its sunniest spots. The bulbs seem to increase, and always look incorrigibly cheerful in their sunnyside-up, fried-egg colours, each opening to a six-pointed star in the sunlight.

Sarah has had hers for longer, in an even less habitable spot, and unfortunately her tardas seem to have run down, so perhaps this is an evanescent thing. I’ll enjoy it while I can.